November 06, 2011

The music of "Fleance" - track included on "Music from Macbeth" - was composed by Denim Bridges during the sessions for the album.

Despite the fans' appreciation, as the same Bridges admitted on an e-mail sent to me on May 2011, "Glen and Paul hated that track because it didn't fit in with TEB concept". For myself, they was right...

"Oh your two eyes will slay me suddenly I may the beauty of them not sustain so pierced is throughout my heart keen unless your words will heal me hastily my heart's wound while that it is green oh your two eyes will slay me suddenly upon my troth I tell you faithfully that you are of my Life and Death the Queen and with my Death the Truth be seenoh your two eyes will slay me suddenly I may the beauty of them not sustain so pierced is throughout my heart keenso hath your beauty from my heart chased Pity that it avails not to complain for Pride doth hold your Mercy in its chain guiltless my death hath ye purchased I say you sooth there is no need to feign so hath your beauty from my heart chased alas that Nature hath in your embrace beauty so great that no man may attain to Mercy though he starve for pain".

Of course, this version is just a modern English adaptation of the original Middle Age one, that was this (note that the section used by Bridges for the track, probably provided to him by filmaker Polanski, is highlighted in
red):

MERCILES BEAUTE

1. CAPTIVITY

"Your eyen two wol slee me sodenly,

I may the beaute of hem not sustene,

So woundeth hit through-out my herte kene.

And but your word wol helen hastily

My hertes wounde, whyl that hit is grene,

Your eyen two wol slee me sodenly,

I may the beaute of hem not sustene.

Upon my trouthe I sey yow feithfully,

That ye ben of my lyf and deeth the quene;

For with my deeth the trouthe shal be sene.

Your eyen two wol slee me sodenly,

I may the beaute of hem not sustene,

So woundeth hit through-out my herte kene.

2. REJECTION

So hath your beaute fro your herte chaced

Pitee, that me ne availeth not to pleyne;

For Daunger halt your mercy in his cheyne.

Giltles my deeth thus han ye me purchaced;

I sey yow sooth, me nedeth not to feyne;

So hath your beaute fro your herte chaced

Pitee, that me ne availeth not to pleyne.

Allas! that nature hath in yow compassed

So greet beaute, that no man may atteyne

To mercy, though he sterve for the peyne.

So hath your beaute fro your herte chaced

Pitee, that me ne availeth not to pleyne;

For Daunger halt your mercy in his cheyne.

3. ESCAPE

Sin I fro Love escaped am so fat,

I never thenk to ben in his prison lene;

Sin I am free, I counte him not a bene.

He may answere, and seye this or that;

I do no fors, I speke right as I mene.

Sin I fro Love escaped am so fat,

I never thenk to ben in his prison lene.

Love hath my name y-strike out of his sclat,

And he is strike out of my bokes clene

For ever-mo; ther is non other mene.

Sin I fro Love escaped am so fat,

I never thenk to ben in his prison lene;

Sin I am free, I counte him not a bene".

There're no proofs that the band played the song at live concerts, but a radio broadcast is documented on March 21th, 1972 during the radio programme "Drummond" (titled "Fleance's Song"): the TEB line-up was probably the same of the album...

Just two anedocts to end: "Fleance", the only track with lyrics in the TEB first phase, was one of the Sex Pistols' John Lydonfavourite as declared during a 1977 interview with Tommy Vance (read at http://ghettoraga.blogspot.com/2010/03/johnny-rotten-selected-third-ear-bands.html). Just recently, reader Timothy Sommer has confirmed me by e-mail: "During the 1990s, I was friends with John Lydon... He made a point of buying me some TEB albums, and explaining to me that it was one of his favorite bands and a huge influence on him...". A quite incredible thing, you know, considering how much distant is the (great) Sex Pistols music from the TEB's one...

About Keith Chegwin (his personal Web site at http://www.keithchegwin.com/), at that time 14, I've discovered in the Net that he told about the "Macbeth" recording sessions during an interview:

How the hell as a 14-year old from Bootle do you end up in a Roman Polanski Shakespeare production?"Well it was weird; I mean, to go back even further, as a rough synopsis, I used – when I was eight years of age – to be a great fan of Des O’Connor. And I used to emulate him by coming out from behind the sofa singing Des O’Connor songs".And what was it like working with Polanski?"Well, Roman Polanski, great film director, they’d say “He not turn up today”. That’s all we ever heard. I was booked to work on it for six weeks, and ended up working on it for six months!".Just because he didn’t turn up?"Just because he didn’t turn up. Or he’d turn up and go “I feel ill, I go home”".Were you paid per day?"Yes, paid per day! The Evening Standard wrote an article, I’ll always remember, called The Gobstopper Millionaire, because of the money in those days…".

"Fleance" by the Third Ear Band (1972)

Apart "Fleance", a real hit song in TEB repertoire, for myself the "Macbeth" soundtrack is a really treasure of sounds and moods, a spectacular pagan mass of blood, death and sublime...

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About the editor

Luca Chino Ferrari (b. 1963) is an Italian (underground) paperback writer.
Since 1985 he has written and translated books about folk and rock musicians as Third Ear Band, Robyn Hitchcock, Captain Beefheart, Tim Buckley, Nick Drake, Syd Barrett & the Pink Floyd for the main Italian home publishing. He met Syd Barrett in 1986 and did contribute to the reunion of the Third Ear Band during the '80s. His last book, published in 2015 for English Gonzo Multimedia, is a biography about the English talented jazz piano player Mike Taylor. He runs a personal Web site (in Italian) at http://la-dea-bicefala.webnode.it/

NEW THIRD EAR BAND RECORD ON SALE!

Click on the picture to buy the CD.

TEB recording at Abbey Road Sudios in February 1971

click on the picture to watch the video!

Paul Buckmaster at Hyde Park (June 7th, 1969).

"Third Ear Band music is a reflection of the universe as magic play illusion simply because it could not possibly be anything else. Words cannot describe this ecstatic dance of sound, or explain the alchemical repetiton seeking and sometimes finding archetypal formes, elements and rhythms...".

Third Ear Band live at Hyde Park (June 7th,1969)

Read "Necromancers of the drifting West"!!!

A book on the Third Ear Band edited by Luca Ferrari (published by Stampa Alternativa, Rome 1997). WITH THE FIRST ORIGINAL VERSION OF "ABELARD & HELOISE" SOUNDTRACK!

Third Ear Band at the Roundhouse (London, May 30th 1969).

As alike or unlike as blades of grass or clouds...

"The music is the music of the Druids, released from the unconscious by the alchemical process, orgasmic in its otherness, religious in its oneness communicating beauty and magic via abstract sounds whilst playing without ego enables the musicians to reach a trance-like stage, a "high" in which the music produces itself. Each piece is as alike or unalike as blades of grass or clouds".

Pseudo-mystical...

“The trouble is that you can't be mystical without being called pseudo-mystical, and it's the fault of our previous education. I'm at Glastonbury most of the time, but we're all completely honest about it. We'll even use it honestly to make money, because the ancient Egyptians who were into it all said that you had to be rich because only then can you resist temptation”.

"ALCHEMY"

"Alchemy" (Harvest 1969)

A block to communication.

“I've always felt that music should be pure. If you have lyrics, you are preaching in a way. Somehow words are a block to communication. It's almost impossible for me to explain exactly how I feel about this, that's why I'm a musician. The only way to really understand what I mean, is to firstly listen to a pop group and then listen to us, and then I hope you will know what we're trying to say."

NOTES FROM OVERGROUND

“No announcements, numbers lasting 15 to 20 minutes, art form or con?

This might be valid criticism of (A) Thunderstorm (B) a cricket (C) Third Ear Band.

Their approach to music is different because there is no duality, no conflict between the natural element of chance and the human element of control, did the moon ask to be reflected in the water? If it wasn’t for the trees would the wind know when it was blowing? Paul Minns says there are some very beautiful forests in Hyde Park, trying to put titles to music is rather like trying to answer the question where does my hand when it becomes my fist”.

The Centipede

"The Centipede was happy, quite, until a Toad in fun said: "Pray, which leg goes after which?".This worked his mind to such a pitch, he lay distracted in a ditch considering how to run".(Third Ear Band, 1970)

TEB at Isle of Wight Festival, August 1969 (photo: Barry Plummer).

"Music from Macbeth" (Harvest 1972)

OTHER TEB related videos on You Tube

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Third Ear Band - "Experiences" (Harvest 1976)

WEIRD SCENES

“We'd rather people called us a pop group. We do ragas, that aren't really ragas at all, and unless we get a turned on promoter, we get into some weird scenes. At Norwich once, when the promoter saw the audience sitting down and closing their eyes to our music, he accused us of putting them to sleep! Complete paranoia. So I imagine we wouldn't do too well on the Pop Proms”.

VERY MUCH UNDERGROUND

“It's just a question of advertising. We've stayed very much Underground - no photos - and I think this was necessary so people wouldn't put us in a bag. We'd rather the just came up and heard us without ANY preconceived ideas. I suppose it is a bit shattering to see violins and cellos”.

Third Ear Band - "New Forecasts from the Third Ear Almanac" (ADN Records 1989)

90% improvisation...

"I'd say ninety per cent of our music is improvisation. It's not really Indian music, although we use a drone instead of the usual bass line riffs. The music draws from everywhere.

"I think our appeal is that audiences can draw their own thing from us. We make no announcements and none of the numbers have titles. People in colleges we play come up after and say they can get fantastic images in their mind when they listen. We can offer a complete dream. The old Celtic bards used to have the same ability".

MUSIC OF THE SPHERES

“Third Ear Band’s new album “Magic Music” isabout music as pure vibrations, as such it can be linked with colour because colour is vibration. It can even be linked to the music ofthe spheres which states that the vibrations of the planets can be heard with the third ear (silence). The free ragas that we play are modal, each note can be heard as a sound-colour that produces its own mood.Our rhythms come from all overthe world, and we use these ideasand many others to try to make a new world music”.